Knicks' Karl-Anthony Towns says he wasn't predicting future when wearing vintage T-shirt 2 years ago

GREENBURGH – The 2-year-old photo that resurfaced this week of Karl-Anthony Towns wearing a vintage T-shirt promoting the 1999 NBA Finals between the Knicks and Spurs turns out now to be a kind of foreshadowing. But no, Towns said, he wasn’t trying to predict anything when he wore it.

“I didn't know that was gonna come back to be a photo that we all remember,’’ Towns said Monday, after the Knicks wrapped up practice before boarding their charter flight to San Antonio for Game 1 of the 2026 Finals against the Spurs Wednesday.

The picture was taken in Charlotte, N.C., on Oct. 6, 2024, and Towns was on his way into the arena to play his first preseason game as a Knick, against the Charlotte Hornets. It was his first game in a Knicks uniform after having been traded to New York a week earlier by the Minnesota Timberwolves in exchange for Julius Randle, Donte DeVincenzo and a first-round pick.

Karl-Anthony Towns arrived in a 1999 NBA Finals shirt tonight 🔥 pic.twitter.com/H4QOuLzAn1

— The Strickland (@TheStrickland) October 6, 2024

“I grew up a Knicks fan, and to be my first game as a Knick, officially, after a wild training camp that I didn't get to have [because he had to wait a few days for the trade to become official], and really meeting my teammates for the first time at Charlotte for that preseason game… it was a special moment for me and my family,’’ Towns recalled. “I remember my father was there, my wife was there, and it was one of those moments.’’

Towns said he’d bought the T-shirt in a vintage store in Charleston, S.C., where the Knicks were having training camp. Because the trade wasn’t yet official, he wasn’t allowed to practice with the team, so he was just wandering around the city, and walked into a store one day, saw the shirt, and bought it.

“I wore that shirt for the first game, and here we are looking back at that shirt as an omen,’’ he said. “That's funny.’’

As the Knicks and Spurs face each other in the Finals again 27 years later, Towns and his teammates will be trying to reverse the result of that last series, which the Spurs won in five games. San Antonio was led by Tim Duncan the last time; this time they’re fronted by Victor Wembanyama, the 22-year-old French star nicknamed “The Alien.’’

“You just hope a guy like that, you can find ways to make him work,’’ Knicks coach Mike Brown said of dealing with Wembanyama. “At his size and his talent, and his ability, you’ve got to hope he misses some [shots], but you’ve got to keep mixing things up, so you can keep him trying to guess.’’

Towns, who is averaging 16.9 points, 10.6 rebounds and 5.9 assists in the playoffs, will be a big part of the Knicks’ game plan, of course, but the 30-year-old insisted it’s more about team than about anything he does individually.

“It's not even a personal thing for me,’’ Towns said when asked about his role in attacking Wembanyama. “It’s about our team doing what we've been doing, which is play high-level defense, and utilizing those turnovers in the defense to get our offense going. So as long as our team plays with that kind of energy and discipline and game plan execution, we have a chance.’’

The Knicks enter the series on an 11-game winning streak, and coming off consecutive sweeps of Philadelphia and Cleveland. They last played on Memorial Day, May 25, when they blew out the Cavaliers in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals. San Antonio, meanwhile, went seven games in the Western finals against defending champion Oklahoma City.

It’s the second straight series the Knicks are playing where they were rested after a sweep, while their opponent had played in a Game 7. And in Game 1 against Cleveland, the Knicks trailed by 22 points in the fourth quarter, before rallying for an overtime victory.

Landry Shamet, though, said the Knicks aren’t concerned about that kind of thing happening to them again.

“All that [Cleveland] stuff's behind us,’’ Shamet said. “And the reality is our job at hand right now is making sure our bodies are right; making sure our minds are right; making sure we're paying attention to details. We've been incredibly sharp and locked-in, and taking care of [what we can] control was just really all you can do. And then when the ball is tipped up here in a couple of days, it'll be right back into the swing of things of a series.’’

This will also be the first time in the postseason that the Knicks are beginning a series on the road, but Brown said that’s not all that big a deal, either.

“Knowing that it’s gonna be hostile [in San Antonio], we don’t have the energy of the crowd to help us get over the hump,’’ the coach said. “We have to come out with a purpose, not just physically, but mentally as well, so we don’t fall behind. Because the crowd will really feed into that.’’

Robinson practices alone

For the second straight day, Brown said Mitchell Robinson (broken right pinkie) did individual work at practice.